Enrich Family Time with Yoga

Sunset is a daily party time in my house. I can see you getting green, but some people have all the luck, you see! When the sun is waltzing off to the western end of the world, we are busy with a not-so-elegant scramble in the house – grown-ups, children, dogs, and animated yoga mats are all in the fray to reach the rooftop first.

Make yoga a family party

It’s fun, light & relaxing

Use whatever space you have

Include asanas that are comfortable for everyone

Leave a little time for individual practice

Finish with a group meditation

Remember to add some healthy snacks in

The bright yoga mats, bobbing up and down in the racing alleys (read staircase) look forward to this party, as much as the rest of us. They bounce with the same energy. I suspect that our Surya Namaskars have passed on energy to them too!

The purpose of yoga, I was told in my yoga classes is to bring union with the self. Family union is what has happened for us! Three generations on the rooftop, giggling to glory, as we work through individual difficulty levels, competing nonetheless.

Role reversal in yoga

The youngest yoga enthusiast in the family, four-year-old Kabir takes pride in out-doing grandmom everyday. He’s done with his Sarvanga asana (Shoulder stand), Tad asana (Tree pose), Marjari asana (Cat pose), Titli asana (Butterfly pose), and two rounds of Surya Namsakar, and waits patiently with hands on hips as he watches his 50-year-old grandmother do the same. During the yoga class, roles have reversed with Kabir keeping a watchful eye. Through the day, grandmom usually has ample opportunity to guide him through almost all other activities. Both grandmom and grandson recognize the smile of camaraderie in each other’s eyes as they sit in the golden sunset and stretch out in yogasanas.

Love and peace is in the air. It is so every day that we rush upto stretch and breathe and are soon smiling, giggling, playing and we bask in a circle of love. It’s not words. It is breathing and yogasanas that charge our physical and mental bodies. The world drops!

Dogs are included in the yoga party!

The party is on. The music is Ujjai breath, supplemented by Bhastrika pranayama which also provides a change in pace. Yoga asanas are the free-flowing, graceful dance movements that everyone matches by the step – dad, mom, grandmom, grandpa, siblings, kids and their friends. Our dogs jump up in excitement as they sense the joie de vivre in the air. They run and prance around, asking for their share in the fun. As the sun sets, a short meditation session works as a preservative for the happiness that we so exult in.

Milk mugs and snacks find their way to the party, and we marvel at little things around us. As a bird alights on the boundary wall to feed on biscuit crumbs, it is duly made known of our dog’s displeasure at their intrusion on their masters’ love. We laugh. It is said that love has no boundary,I realized it now. Love truly has no boundary. Yoga is on its way, the union is happening between the whole of creation and me. The dogs will catch on too, right?

Yoga – anytime, anywhere

The days we miss these family yoga sessions, we know what we are missing. No foreign trip, restaurant dining, or sightseeing in town matches with the simple fun on our rooftop. Thanks to yoga.

More importantly, thanks to our yoga teachers, who have taught us this joyful way of life. No limitation of props, no limitation of finding the perfect space, or perfect time to indulge in a yoga party. It used to happen anytime spontaneously before a meal, with whoever happened to be home, but now my family has now settled for a sunset yoga party, everyday.

Aren’t you warm and cosy by now, instead of the green that you might have started with? Perhaps, yoga (yogasana, pranayama and meditation ) is on its way to bring yoga (divine union) in your nest called home.

(Petite and quiet, Anisha Sharma is a big surprise in a small package. A writer, former school teacher and journalist, Anisha is full of energy and creativity.)